Upon his retirement as a non-routine flight operations captain from a fractional operator in 2015, Dr. Veillette had accumulated more than 20,000 hours of flight experience in 240 types of aircraft—including balloons, rotorcraft, sea plans, glides, war birds, supersonic jets and large commercial transports. He is an adjunct professor at Utah Valley University. In June 2023, he won the prestigious Bill Gunston Technology Writer of the Year Award.
How does a company that designs and manufactures specialized, turbine-powered aircraft deep within the Swiss Alps recruit a workforce with the skills necessary to compete on the world stage?
Wire strikes by helicopters happen often, and too frequently result in fatalities. The U.S. Helicopter Safety Team found that approximately 16% of all rotary-wing accidents involve wire or obstacle strikes. Meanwhile, an FAA study of wire-strike accidents between 1994 and 2004 found 41 of 124 of those involving civil helicopters were fatal.
During this year’s HAI Heli-Expo in Orlando, Florida, I got the chance to fly in a Bell 206 JetRanger equipped with Safe Flight Instrument Corp.’s Powerline Detection System (PDS), which senses the electromagnetic fields surrounding power lines.
